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Speaker 1: Now the Darwin Turf Club are set to celebrate their

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Speaker 1: one hundred and fiftieth anniversary this Melbourne Cup Day. So

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Speaker 1: the club held their inaugural race meeting at the Fanny

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Speaker 1: Bay Racecourse on Tuesday November ninth, back in eighteen seventy five.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line to tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about what's planned for this major milestone

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Speaker 1: is the Turf Club CEO Chris jaf Good morning to you, Chris.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Good morning Katie, and I'm to all your viewers.

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Speaker 2: How are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Really good? Great? Have you on the show, Chris?

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Speaker 1: One hundred and fifty years. This is quite mind blowing

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Speaker 1: to me. I honestly I didn't even realize that there

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Speaker 1: were horse races being held here in Darwin back in

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy five.

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Speaker 2: Well, you're right. It marks the remarkable milestone and a

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Speaker 2: little bit of history. And you mentioned so back in

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Speaker 2: eighteen seventy four, Darwin's first race club, which was the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory Turf Club back then, was formed and on

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Speaker 2: Tuesday the November the ninth in eighteen seventy five, the

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Speaker 2: club held its very first in augul race meeting and

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Speaker 2: that day became the official start of Darwin's sporting industry.

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Speaker 2: And now a little bit of history. Back in those days,

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Speaker 2: almost the entire town of Palmerston as it was called

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Speaker 2: back then. Palmerston was actually only formed in eighteen sixty nine,

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Speaker 2: so five years prior to this now the whole town

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Speaker 2: turned out to celebrate, and it's been described at the

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Speaker 2: first race meet was held in a flat facing the

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Speaker 2: northeast corner of Fanny Bay, not far from our present site,

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Speaker 2: and most people arrived by horse drawn carriages, walked or

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Speaker 2: arrived from the local steam launch. And it was held

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Speaker 2: obviously on the Prince of Wales's birthday.

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Speaker 1: How cool. Do we have much info about, you know,

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Speaker 1: how many races were held or anything like that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, back in that day it was the obviously

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Speaker 2: it was I think it was two guineas. It was

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Speaker 2: a much smaller field. And yeah, there's a little bit

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Speaker 2: of information, some a bit more conflicting, but we do

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Speaker 2: know that the day, the dates are there, and the

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Speaker 2: location was not far from our current site at the moment, And.

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Speaker 1: Would you know, talk us through then some of what

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Speaker 1: I mean obviously so much has changed over that period

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Speaker 1: of time, but there must be some pretty sort of

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Speaker 1: momentous changes as well over that one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: year history.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean it's for the Northern Territory. It was

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Speaker 2: beginning of really of a sporting culture and basically what

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Speaker 2: that what that's done, This this racing culture has ensured

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Speaker 2: the test of time. One hundred and fifty years, people

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Speaker 2: from Darwin have enjoyed year after year of you know,

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Speaker 2: celebrating obviously all of our race meets during the year,

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Speaker 2: but also our famous our Darwin Cup that's held in July,

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Speaker 2: and that's just been getting stronger and stronger over the years.

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Speaker 2: It's a real big community event. So not only do

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Speaker 2: our local Darwin residents really support it, but we get

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Speaker 2: so many people from interstate and nowadays globally that come

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Speaker 2: up to the territory to enjoy this event.

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Speaker 1: I mean, when you look at, you know, at what

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Speaker 1: that has happened over the last one hundred and fifty years,

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Speaker 1: how embedded do you think the sport's become then in

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Speaker 1: the social fabric of the Northern Territory. I mean, even

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Speaker 1: when you look at the fact that one hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty years ago the whole town turned out to go

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Speaker 1: to those first races.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean I think it's I mean, obviously the

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Speaker 2: population has grown as is. You know, we've always got

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Speaker 2: a lot more things to do as well from you know,

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Speaker 2: back in one hundred and fifty years ago. But you know,

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Speaker 2: the Dimond Cup of we used that as a as

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Speaker 2: a as a talking point. That's growing year on year

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Speaker 2: and as I just mentioned, the attendance has been growing,

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Speaker 2: but more importantly, we're seeing more and more younger people

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Speaker 2: engage with racing. So it's not only in the territory

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Speaker 2: but nationally, which is which is really really exciting.

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Speaker 1: Chris Watt's planned to celebrate the one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: year anniversary.

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Speaker 2: Well, we start off mixcoming Tuesday, So we've got the

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Speaker 2: BTC Construction's Melbourne Cup and so we've got lots of festivities.

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Speaker 2: We've got the Silks Luncheon, now that that is actually

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Speaker 2: sold out, but we do have some space there in

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Speaker 2: the sports bar which is fully air conditioned. We also

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Speaker 2: have a few seats left in our Ted Bailey grandstand

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Speaker 2: and also the grandstand luncheon. Our gates they open at

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Speaker 2: ten am, Melbourne Cup runs at one point thirty and

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Speaker 2: all of our local races we've got a sixth race program.

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Speaker 2: They start from one to fifty four on next Tuesday

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Speaker 2: and it's a full day of fund so we've got

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Speaker 2: great food, great entertainment. Obviously it's the only place in

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Speaker 2: Darwin that you actually can come and watch some horses

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Speaker 2: race as well, so it's a really popular day with local.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt they'll be a busy one. Any hot

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Speaker 1: tips for Cup dae.

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Speaker 2: Well, the final fields and burials, they'll be confirmed Saturday

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Speaker 2: after the Victoria Racing Club's derby day. But right now

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Speaker 2: I would say, and there's a few of us here,

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Speaker 2: the Corfield Cup winner which is half yours. It looks

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Speaker 2: hard to beat hearing for the jockey, so Jamie Mellon,

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Speaker 2: she would become the only the second female jockey in

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Speaker 2: Melbourne Cup history to claim the victory. So I think

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Speaker 2: our tip here from the Darwin Turf Club is half yours.

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Speaker 1: Oh good stuff, sounds like a good one, I reckon. Well,

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Speaker 1: Chris Tape, great to speak to you this morning, Thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for telling us a bit more about that,

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Speaker 1: a bit of a history lesson I reckon for all

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Speaker 1: of us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having me.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, thanks so much,